Office of Public Relations

Producer of The Passion of the Christ to Speak on Campus

STEUBENVILLE, OH—Stephen McEveety, the producer or executive producer of The Passion of the Christ, Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Bella, The Stoning of Soraya M. and many other movies, will speak at Franciscan University of Steubenville on "The Passion, Hollywood, and the Church." The speech, part of the Distinguished Speaker Series, will take place Sunday, November 15, at 8:00 p.m. in the International Lounge of the J. C. Williams Center.

McEveety will discuss the filming of The Passion, as well as the challenges facing a Hollywood producer trying to live out his faith in the entertainment industry. He will also share some of the many instances of God’s grace experienced by the people involved in creating The Passion.

McEveety literally grew up in the entertainment industry. As a boy, he appeared in episodes of Gunsmoke, My Three Sons, and Star Trek, and was influenced by his father’s success as a writer, director, and producer of family entertainment films. McEveety became an assistant director on Real Genius and Early Frost. He then served as a production manager for films including The Trip To Bountiful, Flatliners, and Mel Gibson’s Forever Young, and he associate produced Hotshots.

Long a collaborator with Gibson on such films as Braveheart, What Women Want, and The Passion of the Christ, McEveety recently founded his own company, Mpower Pictures, which released the film Bella. The Stoning of Soraya M., released this summer, is the most recent major project for the company. The movie adapts the true story recorded by a French journalist, stranded in a remote Iranian village, of the bloody circumstances of Soraya's death.

McEveety’s current projects include Left to Tell, a film adaptation of the book Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House) by Immaculée Ilibagiza. He’s also collaborating with screenwriter Joe Eszterhas on telling the story of the 16th century apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe. McEveety serves as an instructor in the Executive Program with Act One, which trains and mentors Christians of all denominations for careers in mainstream film and television.

The talk will be free and open to the public. Light refreshments will follow the speech. This lecture is the latest presentation in the Distinguished Speaker Series, which features leaders who have distinguished themselves in service to Church and society. The series is sponsored by the Advancement Office of Franciscan University.